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To Boil Ham

A ham cooked slowly in water, optionally flavored with pepper or cloves, served after removing the rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Ham and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 23% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,058 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

To Boil Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. If the ham is very dry, soak it in warm water for 12 to 24 hours before cooking.

Cook

  1. Place the ham in a pot with cold water.

  2. Simmer gently for 4 to 5 hours without boiling.

  3. Change the water if the ham is very salty.

Finish and serve

  1. Before serving, remove the rind.

  2. Optionally, decorate with whole pepper or cloves in a diamond pattern.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Ham + peppertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Ham
Is the main cut that is slowly cooked until tender and fully heated through.
Cold water
Gently cooks the ham and draws out some salt when the water is changed.

The step that matters

Simmer gently without boiling. A rolling boil toughens the meat fibres and makes the outside tough and dry, while a gentle simmer keeps the ham tender and moist as it cooks through.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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